The Dallas White Rock Marathon is in less than a month (Dec. 4th), and I've been trying to squeeze in a few more quality workouts before I have to taper. And when I say quality, I mean quantity. Sure, I've been doing some decent mile intervals and tempo runs on a regular basis, but I also set a mileage PR last week. That's right, how does 80 miles sound? Does that make me a running octogenarian? Allow me break it down:
Monday:
11 miles including 7 x 1 mile intervals @ 6:54 avg.
Tuesday:
15 miles recovery @ 9:06 avg.
Wednesday:
15 miles recovery @ 8:54 avg.
Thursday:
10 miles including 5 mile warmup, 5 mile tempo @ 7:30 avg.
Friday:
7 miles recovery @ 9:15 pace
Saturday:
22 miles @ 9:15 avg.
Sunday:
Rest
My previous weekly best was 77 miles set the first week of September. Technically, I covered all 80 miles in 6 days since I like to rest
sleep in on Sundays. That and it's my day to pray to God I don't get injured and tear an important mucsle during my upcoming speed workouts. (BTW, the preceding week was a 66 mile one as I was building back from an October 9th marathon). I started off last week nicely with the intervals. That left me tired Tuesday for the 15 miler. It took about an hour of running before I felt warmed up. I got in 3 or 4 good miles before I finished the run in glycogen depletion mode. Wednesday's 15 was about the same way except I felt a little better and my pace was a little faster. I was a bit disappointed with my 10 miles at the YMCA on Thursday, but only because that morning turned into social hour and I spent time talking instead of running. Nonetheless, I thought my heart rate looked pretty good during my tempo miles. Saturday, I was in no shape to go as fast on my long run as usual, probably thanks to the aforementioned mileage accumulation. However, I did run 22 instead of my usual 20. I read on the internet last week where it was suggested to do your long run in the amount of time it would take to complete a marathon, only run fewer miles and go slower, and that is what I did.
My weight has been going the wrong way lately. Halloween contributed to that, but I need to get some self control and eat healthier. I thought the extra miles would help, but I guess they only gave me an excuse to eat more. Having said all that, I'm only about 3 or 4 pounds above where I was a month ago so don't feel too sorry for me.
Just so you don't think I spent my whole week running... Here are some photos of a few other activities I did over the course of last week:
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Went trick-or-treating on Halloween. My kids are the 3 on the left.
Don't tell them I've been enjoying their candy. |
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Saw an 80s hair band called "Tesla" with some friends on Saturday night.
The garage band I'm in covers their song, "Modern Day Cowboy." |
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Any guesses what this monstrosity is? It is the makings of a chicken
coop. The wife and I have been working on it for months it seems.
Hope we can get it done before Winter sets in. It is also the reason
I haven't been blogging as much lately. |
Have a good week!
9 comments:
I'm so impressed with your mileage and your training! I'm realizing more and more that I'd be lucky to get up to 65/70 as my peak mileage. I was a bit too lofty with my 80 that I threw out there. That just might be stupid for me. I think I could still run a great marathon off of lesser mileage and be safer for me. Looks like you built up wisely! Hoping for the best for you!! And I hear ya on the halloween candy. I have no idea how the heck we got through all of the candy we had...it kind of makes me sick to think about. Anyway, have a great week!
I thought you were being an awesome dad after eating all the kids' candy that you were building them a playhouse! Maybe they can share it with the chickens?!
80 is fantastic!! I think that's going to really help your cause in Dallas. The most mileage I seem to be able to build up to without any issues after is about 65. Well, that was in a prior life, right now it seems to be about 55, but hopefully that will change in the spring.
I think Halloween is the most evil of all holiday weight gains....it's not like you overeat on one particular day but it's a continuous sugar-fest for 2 weeks straight. Thankfully, my kids didn't go trick or treating this year (sad, actually) but for whatever brain not functioning reason, we hit the 50% off candy sales the day after Halloween. How stupid was that!!! 5 pumpkin shaped Reeses consumed in one sitting should be illegal!
Have a great week, Jon! Hi to Lora! :)
THAT, is a damn fine chicken coop! I live on a farm and always wanted chicken but have never gotten any. This could be an idea!! You've done such a great job on it too!
It's funny, I have a problem keeping weight on after a marathon. I've lost 7 lbs in a little over a week. Nothing sounded good, until yesterday! I ate two donuts today, some pizza and a banana for good measure. I'll be happy to take some of those lbs off of your hands! :)
I remember Tesla. I had no idea they still had the magic.
It seems like you mentioned that you were doing Dallas in an attempt to either hit 3:25 goal, or to BQ. Did you consider the New Year's Double as a possibility, considering it will be much more flat than White Rock..? Just curious. Great mileage...you're in a completely different league than myself (actually, several leagues separate us :-).
It's so wrong that you can run 80 miles in a week and still not be able to have an all-you-can-eat Halloween. Well done on getting through such a tough training week.
I like the Halloween picture! And that is some awesome mileage. Do you already have the chickens or are they yet to come?
Whoa, 80 miles!!! Impressive stuff!
Sounds like training for Dallas marathon is going well, I think another PR will be in order on race day.
Gotta love kids trick or treating pics, was this pic number 8000 before they said - enough!
Doing the Portland marathon would be a good marathon I think, the city is a great one to run in. The city does have a fair amount of hills, so I could see the marathon being somewhat hilly. And also there's a decent chance that it would be raining for the race, it rains a lot in Portland.
It was indeed my car that I had the 26.2 sticker on, that would be weird if I found a random pic on the internet, haha
OK Wow!!!!! So do you right your own training plan?? I'm trying to decide if I should do my own or fork over the money(I don't have) for a coach.
Just now catching up on blogs - great job on the mileage PR Jon! 80 is awesome!!! Increasing my mileage was probably the biggest thing that made me improve as a runner this year. It wasn't easy at first, but now it's no big deal and it has made me faster. The biggest thing was a mindset on race day. I never wonder anymore if I put in enough miles in training. Plus the last few miles of the marathon don't freak me out like they used to.
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